Pablo Neruda

At 3m30s this poem  "The Dead Women" was my first introduction to Pablo Neruda - a wonderful discovery that was further expanded when this film "Il Postino" came out.

[No,] perdóname.                                                                       Forgive me
Si tú no vives,                                                                              If you are not living
si tú, querida, amor mío, si tú                                                  If you beloved, my love, if you
te has muerto,                                                                             have died,
todas las hojas caerán en mi pecho,                                     all the leaves will fall on my breast,
lloverá sobre mi alma noche y día,                                          it will rain on my soul, all night - all day,

[***]

mis pies querrán marchar hacia donde tú duermes,          my feet will want to march to where you are sleeping,
pero seguiré vivo,                                                                         but I shall go on living

Neruda has been described as an "apologist" for Stalin - which appears accurate as he was a life-long Socialist but MANY Communist supporters turned into opponents after WW2 - so I find it hard to continue that claim until his death in 1972.  What may not be as well known was that he was most likely targeted for assassination!  He died 61/2 hrs after receiving a mysterious injection in Sept 1973 that he believed was on the orders of General Pinochet who engineered a Coup D'Etat against Socialist President Salvador Allende with CIA support.

Neruda's poems were a revelation it is true - but so was his background - including that he richly deserved his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.